No! Rey could not believe what the man just told her!
Her body numbed. She felt like she was turning to stone. Falling to her knees, she grasped each side of her head as she tried not to scream.
The man let her arm go and backed away from her. As he disappeared into the deepest, darkest corner of the control room, he held his arms out to his sides and cackled. “Let yourself scream, for it is who you are.” Then, just like that, he vanished and left the traumatized, scarred girl behind.
The tears fell like a monstrous hurricane. Rey punched the ground and did what the hooded man said. She screamed. If what the man told her was true, she was a monster! She was a descendant of evil! She was the galaxy’s worst enemy! Rey screamed so loud that the entire computer room shook.
Ben heard her scream. “Rey!” He quickly stopped P-43 and the Beacerika in their tracks.
The Luggabeast had to stay outside, but it acted as a bodyguard and paced back and forth before the building. At every sound, it growled.
Ben jumped into a run in the building, and hurried before the droid and Force-sensitive creature. “Rey!” When he reached a long, narrow hallway, he came to a screeching halt and rapidly searched the area. He tried to feel Rey’s aura, but it wasn't easy because she was concealed behind a door.
Luckily, the Beacerika came to Ben’s rescue. It hopped down from his shoulder and scurried down the hallway like a mouse.
“Wait!” Ben called after it. He and P-43 followed it to the door of the computer room. Ben used his shoulder to break it down. However, because he did that so quickly, he fell forward and landed on the dirty ground.
Rising to his hands and knees, his eyes widened when he saw he was in a computer room. Wait a minute. It looked familiar. That’s because the Desert Resort used to be a hideout for the First Order. The computers were chock-full of traps they used against their enemies, particularly the Resistance.
Ben noticed something unsettling before one computer and a latch—a bundle.
She shook as tears streamed down her cheeks.
All the color drained from Ben’s face when he saw her. “Rey!” He sprinted to the twitching, traumatized girl on the floor. His eyes landed on the latch and the computer she rested before. It was the computer she was interested in when she stumbled into the room in the first place.
“Rey!” Ben yelled again, grabbing her arm.
She screamed because he had her by her injured arm.
Ben held her in his arms, peering down at her flustered, pale face. “What have you done?”
***
Like what he did when he snuck aboard Darth Vader’s ship with Luke, Leia, Han, and Obi-Wan years ago, Chewie casually landed his and Temiri’s X-Wing in The Limpton’s ship hanger. They followed a few TIE Silencers in.
General Hux stood in the hanger’s control room. His eyes landed on the ship, and he asked his comrades, “What is that puny, little ship doing here?”
“Sir, it’s a Resistance craft.”
“A Resistance craft? What are you doing just sitting here, then? Blast it!”
“Yes, Supreme Leader!” With that, the mechanic pushed a button for a Code Red crisis. As soon as he did, doors in the hanger slid open, and stormtroopers appeared.
Seeing them, Temiri smirked and told Chewie, “Now it’s time for the real fun to begin.”
Laughing, Chewie nodded at the little boy. Grabbing his bowcaster, he hurried out of the X-Wing with Temiri close on his heels. Chewie blasted the stormtroopers approaching him and the Force-sensitive child one at a time. Oh, ho, ho, ho! He had forgotten what this felt like!
Temiri was too young to hold a blaster, but he did have his broom. Using the power of the Force, he spun it around the room like a boomerang.
The broom snuck up on lines of stormtroopers and smashed through them, which caused them to fall like dominos. Who knew a broom could be such a reliable weapon? It threw the stormtroopers against the hanger’s wall.
While they were down, Chewie blasted them. Wow, he and Temiri made a darn good team. It reminded him of all those times he fought alongside Han Solo.
“Why aren’t you blasting those freaks?” Hux snapped from the control room.
“Sir, they’re taking out all our men!” shouted the comrade he spoke to initially.
“Why? There’s only two of them!”
“Yeah, but I think one of them is Force-sensitive.”
“Force-sensitive? Who’s Force-sensitive?” Hux leaned in close to the mechanic’s computer.
He pointed at Temiri in the camera and said, “I think it’s the boy.”
“The boy?” Hux growled and lowered his head. “We’ll see about that,” With those words, he shoved past the mechanic’s shoulder and stomped to the computer room’s exit.
Chewie and Temiri were having the time of their lives.
Temiri continued to take out stormtroopers with his broom while Chewie did the dirty work.
“Whoo!” shouted the young boy. “Now, this is what I call steam!” Unfortunately, as he said that, time froze. Suddenly, he and Chewie couldn’t move. They froze in their battle positions as if they had just become statues.
The stormtroopers who still stood quickly moved off to the side when the ship’s main hanger opened.
A figure appeared in the doorway.
Where he and Chewie were, Temiri tried to let his broom go, to no avail.
Chewie whimpered, but Temiri told him confidently, “Don’t worry, Chewie. We’ve got this.” His eyes moved to the figure standing in the doorway when he said that.
A few seconds later, a red light and a buzzing sound emerged from the shadows. “Welcome,” said an eerie, cackling voice. Just like that, General Hux stepped into the ship hanger.
***
“Ben, I need to fly to the supernova.” The desperation in Rey’s voice was serious. After Ben found her in the computer room, he escorted her outside to the medical center she was looking for.
She and Ben now sat across from one another in one of the center’s rooms, and Rey rested her right arm in a tub of bacta. She flinched, for the bacta stung, but she felt safe with Ben close. So many terrible things had happened to her lately, but Ben’s presence calmed her.
They stared into each other’s eyes, and Ben asked, “So, you know who you are?”
“I do.” Nodding, Rey removed her arm from the bacta and shook it out. “And I also know I can fix this.”
“Who are you?” Ben asked in a profound but somewhat hypnotic voice. He stared into Rey’s soul.
This was her answer: “I am Rey.” Flashbacks of that memorable evening when she sat with Leia on Supher invaded her mind. “I have a talent with the Force like no other. I must save Jakku and the whole galaxy from myself.”
“Do you know why you are in this situation in the first place?” questioned Ben.
Rey nodded again. “Yes. I used the Dark side to encounter the Beacerika on the island.”
“That’s right. Rey, I know who you are. I felt you were a descendant of evil when we fought the Praetorian Guards. That’s why I lied and said you were nobody.”
“You knew something like this would eventually happen.”
“Yes.” Ben gave her a quick nod. “I wanted to protect you, to prevent the premonition from coming true. But now it looks like I’ve failed you.”
“Oh, Ben, you didn’t fail me.” Rey again removed her arm from the bacta to see if her wound had improved. “I failed you. I failed Luke. You’re not the amateur, but I am.”
“Yes, you are, Rey,” a sudden wise but mystical voice spoke from off to the side.
At the same time, Ben and Rey turned their heads. Eyes widening, their jaws dropped.
A relatively short but familiar figure stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. He had pointy ears and green skin and wore a Jedi robe.
“Master Yoda,” were the only words that left Ben’s lips.
Soon after Yoda appeared, another Force ghost stepped into the scene and stood beside him. He was much taller and also wore a Jedi robe.
Now, it was Rey’s turn to speak. “Master Skywalker.”
Indeed, it was Luke Skywalker. He slowly approached the two youths, and his eyes landed on Rey. To her, he repeated what Yoda told him back on Ahch-To, “‘The greatest lesson failure is,’” and then repeated what he told her in the Phonolukamy Wormhole: ‘We’ve passed down all we know, Rey. A thousand generations live in you. But this is your fight.’”
“I said I wasn’t going to fail you, Master.” Rey choked on her words. “And look where my overconfidence got me.”
“True. True,” Yoda chuckled. Using the support of his cane, he hobbled to Ben and stood beside his left arm. “Join Ben when you had the chance, you should have. Travel to supernova, you must, to restore your moral ambiguity.”
“As a descendant of evil, you need to stop fighting the Light and Dark sides of the Force,” Luke said. He kneeled to Rey and gently picked up her right hand. “You need to turn to the Dark side.”
“But what if I can’t turn back?” Rey knew the power she was capable of. What if she destroyed the whole galaxy? What if she destroyed Ben? What if she destroyed her friends, even General Leia?
It was Ben’s turn to comfort her. Luke turned her hand over to him, and the young man gently clutched it with both hands. Smiling sheepishly, he promised, “Rey, you will. I’ll make sure you do. However, the only way to save the galaxy is for you to turn. For the Force to be balanced, there must be one Jedi and one Sith: light and darkness. Trust me. This is your destiny.”
“‘Destiny is not a horse,” Rey repeated as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Ben, I’m scared.”
“I know you are, but you have to do this.” When Ben said that, the Beacerika jumped off the young man’s shoulder and landed on Rey’s.
Luke scratched it under the chin. “You will take the Beacerika with you. He will get you to the supernova safely.”
“Have confidence, you must,” chuckled Yoda. “Learn from mistakes. Fight the battle. Live the dream.” He reached behind his back and pulled something out of it as if from out of nowhere. It was a brand-new lightsaber.
Gulping, Rey pulled up the hood of her cape and reached for it.
She hesitated, but the Jedi Master nodded his head to encourage her.
Luke placed his hand on her shoulder and rubbed it.
Before her, Ben once again said, “You need to do this.”
Rey shivered, but she accepted Yoda’s gift. The second she did, the lightsaber ignited—buzz—and revealed a red, double-blade.
Beside her, the Beacerika admired the weapon and telepathically told the girl, “Welcome, Rey…to the Dark side.”
With Ben, Luke, Yoda, and P-43 on either side of her, Rey bound her healing wound and marched outside to the Desert Resort’s hot, steamy atmosphere. She held her new lightsaber in her hand. The Beacerika rode on her shoulder, and she kept her hood on her head.
Her friends escorted her to the Desert Resort’s spaceport, where Ben landed The Robin Hood.
Ben helped her into the ship's cockpit. Once in it, the Beacerika hopped down from Rey’s shoulder and landed in the co-pilot seat beside her.
Before taking off, Ben again took Rey’s hand. He gently shook it, and she returned the shake.
Letting go, she booted up The Robin Hood and focused on Jakku’s supernova.
Outside, Ben backed away and joined Yoda, Luke, and P-43.
They together watched as the ship lifted into the sky.
Rey peered over her shoulder one last time at her friends, and they feebly smiled. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she punched The Robin Hood’s accelerator and shot straight up, away from safety and toward her final battle—Rey vs. the supernova.
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